The legal wrangling has commenced in the federal corruption case against five former San Diego pension officials, and the most pressing issue is giving prosecutors heartburn.

None of the defendants has an official attorney, more than two months after indictments on fraud and conspiracy charges were handed up by a grand jury. Prosecutors have asked a judge to force lawyers to get in or get out.

“This uncertainty detrimentally affects the progression of the criminal case,” the government wrote in a motion filed Tuesday that asks for a deadline to be set.

Further complicating matters, the government also is asking the judge to disqualify one and possibly another potential defense attorney over alleged conflicts of interest. One of those lawyers, Jerry Coughlan, told the court that his potential client, Ronald Saathoff, may show up at the next hearing without a lawyer.

If that scenario plays out, the government has asked the judge to hold a hearing to make sure Saathoff understands the hazards of representing himself.

Saathoff was indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges by a federal grand jury Jan. 6. Also indicted were former city Human Resources Director Cathy Lexin, former acting City Auditor Teresa Webster, former pension fund administrator Lawrence Grissom and the system's former general counsel,Loraine Chapin.

For the defense attorneys and their clients, it's about the financial cost. Saathoff, Lexin and Webster already are paying lawyers in other civil and criminal matters stemming from the pension debacle, and many experts have estimated that this case could last years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend. Former civil servants don't have the financial ability to pay for another case, and lawyers can't afford to take the case for free, the lawyers have said.

Chapin and Grissom received good news on that front Friday when San Diego's retirement board voted to let taxpayers pay their legal expenses. The board's decision requires the pair to put up an unspecified amount of collateral that the pension system would use to recoup legal costs if either is convicted. Legal fees would be capped at $475 an hour.

Saathoff, Lexin and Webster are facing conflict-of-interest charges in state court. Coughlan represents Saathoff in the state case. In the federal case, Webster and Lexin are asking for taxpayer-funded attorneys.

Webster's lawyer from the state case, Frank Vecchione, is on the list of lawyers eligible to take cases of people designated as indigent by the court, and he has been appointed provisionally. A lawyer from Federal Defenders of San Diego Inc. has been appointed provisionally to represent Lexin.

Former San Diego U.S. Attorney Charles La Bella has agreed to represent Chapin, and attorney Brian Hennigan is likely to represent Grissom, though neither has made it official.

Another issue to be determined by the judge: Prosecutors have asked that the case be declared complex, a label that would stop the clock on the requirement that the defendants be tried within 70 days of arraignment. The clock has been ticking since Feb. 1.

A hearing on these and other matters is scheduled for tomorrow.

In a Jan. 6 indictment, the government alleged that Saathoff persuaded fellow board members to allow the city to underfund the pension system – now with a deficit of $1.4 billion – in exchange for a secret 40 percent increase in his own pension.

The indictment said the defendants deprived residents and pensioners of their right to honest services by conspiring to illegally obtain enhanced retirement benefits for themselves in exchange for allowing the financially strapped city to underfund the pension system.

All have pleaded not guilty. Their temporary lawyers have said that the enhanced benefits and the underfunding were not linked and that votes for benefits took place months before the votes – and in public – to allow underfunding.

Also, the defendants believed that by allowing the city to delay full funding of the pension system, they were preventing layoffs and helping the city with its budget crisis, the lawyers said.